


No Need for Searching

by unclechrom



Category: Marvel, X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Charles loves bubblegum pop music, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-24 17:09:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17708297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unclechrom/pseuds/unclechrom
Summary: Erik thinks his upstairs neighbor has horrendous taste in music.





	No Need for Searching

**Author's Note:**

> Instead of working on the cherik fic I started three years ago, I wrote this. While I was drying my hair, my brain was like “Charles would love bubblegum pop,” and I was like “brain, you’re right.” So here’s one of the most self-indulgent things I’ve written in a long time (also an attempt to punch seasonal depression in the face). It’s been a fun little break from my other projects, so please enjoy!

It started sometime during the first week of November. 

Erik was winding down from a busy work week by settling down with a novel and a steaming cup of coffee when he heard the faint beginnings of a song coming from the apartment above his. It was quiet enough to be easily tuned out as he continued ahead with reading his book.

Then it began to get progressively louder. He noticed that he had read the same passage at least three times without retaining a single word from it. The music wasn’t quite overbearing, but it was definitely too distracting for Erik to really sink into the novel like he wished.

He tossed the book onto his coffee table before slipping on some shoes and a light jacket before heading out the door. Maybe a light jog would be more relaxing than reading today.

It was around noon the next day when he heard the music start again. It was definitely louder than the previous day, and the lyrics were faintly decipherable this time.

_One taught me love._  
_One taught me patience._  
_One taught me pain._  
_Now, I’m so amazing._

Erik didn’t recall his upstairs neighbor having any disruptive habits in the past. Actually, he couldn’t even recall if he _had_ an upstairs neighbor previously. Perhaps a new tenant had moved in without him noticing; he had been putting in longer hours at work lately. It wouldn’t surprise him if he had managed to miss an entire move-in.

He sighed and turned on his own stereo to drown out the bubblegum pop coming from upstairs. Erik couldn’t exactly leave every single time his neighbor decided to be a nuisance, and he had plenty of things he needed to do today.

Things which, three hours later, still hadn’t been accomplished because Erik had instead taken to contemplating the pros and cons of murdering his neighbor. 

Pros: The absolute racket upstairs would cease and Erik would be able to resume life as usual in his quiet apartment.

Cons: He wouldn’t actually be able to resume life as usual because he would be charged with murder instead.

The volume of the song blaring repeatedly had increased enough that he couldn’t continue to drown it out with his own music without hearing the bubbly melody mixed in. The combination of the two was somehow worse, so Erik had begrudgingly turned off his own music. How could anyone stand to listen to the same song over and over and over again? 

At this point, Erik could hear the lyrics clear as day.

_I’m so fucking grateful for my ex._

Now he could also hear what he assumed was his neighbor singing along, rather badly might he add, and that was enough to motivate Erik to take action. He stood on a chair to pound on the ceiling, hopefully sending his neighbor the message to turn the fuck down. When repeated attempts at that seemed to be utterly futile, he reached out with his powers to try to feel for any sort of stereo system in the apartment above him. Vaguely, he could sense what he assumed was a rather nice stereo judging by the size of the object.

Finding what he assumed might be the volume control knobs, Erik twisted them to abruptly silence the music. He made sure to leave them a little more… difficult to use in the future.

Erik stared up at the ceiling for a few moments before determining that he had successfully restored peace to the apartment building. He was able to go about the rest of his day without any major disturbances from upstairs and mentally gave himself a pat on the back for a job well done.

***

He had just finished having a quiet, peaceful dinner after a rather stressful day at work and was cleaning up the kitchen when he heard it again. This time it sounded like it was coming from a much smaller set of speakers, probably a laptop.

Erik closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to steel his already frayed nerves. He tried to focus on tuning out the noise as he continued drying the dishes. For a moment, he thought he might be successful, but then terribly out of key singing once again joined the music coming from the upstairs apartment.

Whenever Erik thought things couldn’t get worse, they always, without fail, found a way to become worse.

He threw the towel down on the counter and stomped over to the door, tugged on a pair of shoes, and left his apartment, slamming the door shut behind him. Erik made no attempt to hide his irritation as he allowed his steps to fall heavy on the stairs, like a steady march into battle. When he reached the apartment that was the source of his annoyance for the past few days, he all but pummeled the door to get his neighbor’s attention.

Faintly, he could hear a voice calling out over the music before it was turned down, followed by the hustle of footsteps towards the door. A lock clicked and the door swung open to reveal a disheveled but rather… handsome young man with the clearest, most beautiful blue eyes Erik had ever seen. Those eyes raked over Erik, almost causing him to forget why he was standing there.

“Well, I said ‘next,’ but I didn’t expect the universe to deliver so promptly.” A coy smile spread across the man’s face as he leaned on the doorframe. He had a rather posh accent, further adding to the list of traits he really didn’t expect this nuisance to have.

And damn it, his annoying upstairs neighbor was actually pretty cute.

Despite the unexpected turn of events, Erik figuratively plowed straight ahead, lest he forget the entire reason he was standing in front of this man’s apartment door in the first place. Purposefully looking past those blue eyes into the apartment behind him, there were boxes haphazardly stacked around the room Erik could see, confirming his “new neighbor” theory. The dreaded stereo system that had been the bane of his existence for the two days prior was among the few things that seemed to have been unpacked first.

“I came to ask you to turn down your music,” he stated, trying to maintain a serious look that left no room for further flirtation, no matter how tempting his neighbor’s unexpected attractiveness made it.

“Oh, my apologies.” That coy smile disappeared from his face, and his posture straightened. “I didn’t realize the walls were so thin.”

“Terribly so.”

“I’ll uh… be sure not to turn the volume up quite so loud next time.” The man seemed sincere, at least.

_Well… that was easier than expected_ , Erik thought to himself. He nodded curtly at his neighbor and turned to leave.

“Wait a minute,” the man called after him, slightly stepping outside of the apartment doorway and offering his hand to Erik. “I really do apologize for causing a disturbance. The name’s Charles Xavier.”

Erik paused before shaking his hand. “Erik Lehnsherr.”

The handshake lingered for a bit longer than Erik would have preferred, and Charles looked very… contemplative, as if he were really mulling something over.

“Did you happen to have anything to do with my stereo being difficult?” Charles asked cautiously, finally dropping his hand after what felt like an eternity.

_Shit._

Before Erik could come up with a plausible defense, his neighbor broke into a brilliant smile and started laughing. “You’re… like me, aren’t you?” 

“I’m what?” Erik wasn’t following whatever train of thought that was.

“You’re a mutant, too.”

Immediately, Erik’s defenses went up, and the man must have sensed it somehow, if the unease wasn’t already clear enough on his face.

“Oh, no, no. I’m terribly sorry I didn’t mean to intrude, you were just… thinking rather loudly, and I couldn’t help but to overhear.” He explained with a sheepish smile. “You were practically shouting.”

“You’re a telepath,” Erik interrupted him.

“I am,” Charles answered with a nod. “And I take it you have some sort of… kinetic ability? Judging by what happened to my stereo, at least.”

“Metallokinesis.” Erik answered, lowering his guard a bit.

The smile on his neighbor’s face was quickly replaced by a look of sudden realization. So much for Erik lowering his guard.

“Oh my god. You’re _that_ Erik.”

Erik was taken aback. “ _Excuse me?_ ”

“Are you friends with Raven Darkholme by any chance?”

Then it all clicked for Erik, too. He’d heard Raven fondly complain about and mock her brother so many times he couldn’t believe he hadn’t realized it sooner. “Wait, are you her brother?”

“Oh, so she’s mentioned me? Only good things, I presume.” The smile was back on his face. “Much to her dismay most of the time, yes, I am her brother. _Adopted_ , as she loves to remind everyone.”

He could vaguely recall several texts from Raven complaining about her pest of an older brother having moved in with her a few months back. Something about a bad break-up, maybe? Erik had quite honestly tuned out most of her whining and complaints after a while.

“Yeah, she kicked me out for being an annoyance or something like that.” He continued with an air of joking nonchalance as he ran his hand through his hair. “But she claimed it was _‘for my own good.’_ ”

“I can’t imagine what you could have possibly done to warrant that,” Erik added, sarcastically.

“Absolutely no idea. I have done nothing wrong, ever, in my life.” Charles feigned innocence, and Erik couldn’t help but laugh at him. Maybe he wasn’t actually so bad for someone who made sure the entire apartment complex knew exactly how bad his taste in music was.

The smile on Charles’ face faded to something Erik could only describe as a gentle warmth. “Actually, Raven is the one who told me about this apartment being available.”

_Of course she did._

Erik let out another laugh, “I’m gonna kill her.”

“She does have quite a sense of humor, doesn’t she?” Charles seemed amused when Erik rolled his eyes.

“Well…” Not really knowing what else to say after that, Erik made a move to head back to his floor. “It’s been an incredibly long day for me, and then my neighbor decided to cause a ruckus. So I’m gonna just… go. It was nice meeting you, though.”

“Likewise.” Charles gave him a warm smile that gave Erik feelings he’d rather not address. “Hopefully that neighbor won’t cause any problems in the future.”

“Hopefully not.” Erik laughed and began making his way to his apartment, making a mental note to give Raven hell about pawning her problems off on him. As he left, he thought he could feel eyes watching him go down the hallway, but Erik didn’t look back to check.

Once back inside his own apartment, Erik fired off a text message to Raven. 

“Ever think about confronting your problems instead of pawning them off on innocent people?”

She replied almost immediately, but all she sent was an angel emoji, to which Erik rolled his eyes and tossed his phone aside.

The next day, the apartment complex was almost eerily quiet after Erik came home from work, but he told himself there was absolutely no way that he missed the annoyance from upstairs.

***

Work ran late thanks to some unforeseen problems with his current project, and Erik was utterly done with _everything_ by the time he made it home. He tossed his keys onto the nearest table and collapsed on the couch in a heap of exhaustion, ready for Death to take him.

Not even two minutes later, there was a knock at his apartment door, and Erik loudly groaned before forcing himself to get off the couch. Erik looked through the peephole and saw Raven’s brother standing there, holding what appeared to be a bag of takeout. The sight of food led him to open the door without even a second thought.

“Peace offering?” Charles said as he held up the bag.

He could already smell the food and was reminded of how extremely hungry he was. Erik motioned for his neighbor to come into his apartment as he turned to head into the small kitchen.

“I asked Raven what your favorite was,” Charles explained as he took the containers of food out of the bag. The logo printed on the boxes was from the Chinese restaurant Raven always stopped by whenever she came over to visit.

Erik chuckled. “So she _is_ capable of some good.”

“As am I,” Charles joked. “...though, I wouldn’t be upset if my kindness were repaid by oh, fixing my stereo? Or something like that.”

Erik grimaced slightly. He had almost forgotten about that. “I’ll uh… yeah, I can take care of that sometime. Sorry.”

“No rush,” Charles waved a hand. “It seems like you’ve got a lot going on right now.”

“You can tell?” Erik raised an eyebrow at the other man.

“You’re projecting a bit. Kind of like a little storm cloud followed you home today.” His brow was furrowed. “It’s a bit hard to miss.”

Erik tried not to show his amusement at what that insinuated. “So you were waiting for me to come back from work?”

“Certainly not,” Charles denied. 

_He totally was._ Erik smirked.

With the boxes of food now spread out on the kitchen counter, Erik remembered that he didn’t particularly ever have people over who weren’t Raven. And he didn’t have a kitchen table.

“Oh, sorry. There’s not really anywhere to sit in here, hasn’t been much need for it. Living room fine with you? I’ve got uhh, TV trays, if you need one.” Erik wasn’t sure why he was concerned with the comfort of someone who essentially bribed him with food in order to infiltrate his apartment.

“Whatever is fine with me.” Charles shrugged. “I’m adaptable.”

Erik picked up his box of food and package of chopsticks and began to head to the living room, but for some reason he turned around to make sure his guest was following him. He watched as Charles went to pick up his own chopsticks but somehow dropped the package on the floor. Erik kept watching as the other man very slowly bent down to pick them up.

_Why is he doing that so slo—_

And then Charles quickly stood back up, almost like the snap of a whip. Erik just stared at him in confusion.

“The hell was that about?” Erik asked him. “You okay?”

Immediately, Charles’ face flushed and he very pointedly didn’t make eye contact with the man watching him. He grabbed his own food and made to follow Erik to the living room. “Nothing, it was just uhhh, a cold chill.”

It was probably for the best that Charles was pretending to be transfixed by his suddenly very interesting takeout box because otherwise he would have caught Erik staring at the blush on his cheeks. His neighbor was very quickly becoming a whole new set of problems for Erik.

The couch wasn’t exactly spacious, but there should have been plenty of room for two men to sit on it with a reasonable amount of personal space remaining. Except that didn’t happen at all because Erik didn’t calculate that his guest wouldn’t move the pillow to give himself slightly more room, so when Charles sat down, their thighs ended up touching. Erik was pretty sure his thigh was going to catch on fire from the contact.

Seemingly recovered from the incident with the chopsticks and unperturbed, by the lack of personal space, Charles launched into a casual conversation. “Raven told me that you work at Stark Industries.” He added with a knowing smirk. “That probably tells me enough about how your day went.”

Erik rolled his eyes and sunk further into the couch, cradling his takeout box like it would solve all of his life problems. “Calling my boss ‘unbearable’ would be an understatement.”

Charles let out a laugh at that. “Tony’s like an endearing sort of unbearable.”

“Tony Stark. _Endearing._ ” Erik shot him a look in disbelief.

“Ah, we sort of grew up together,” he explained, waving it off. “Our families ran in the same social circles and whatnot.”

“I’m sorry. That must have been traumatic.” Erik added dryly, earning another laugh from Charles. Mentally, he added Charles’ laugh to the list of unexpectedly attractive things about his neighbor. 

“Oh, he’s not that bad. You really get used to it after a while.”

“I’ve worked there for a year.”

“I said ‘ _a while_.’” The smile on Charles’ face was playfully exasperated, and Erik couldn’t tear his eyes away. His food was getting cold, though, so he really _should_ try to stop staring. Or at least maybe try to multitask.

A companionable silence fell over the pair as their focuses returned to eating, and Erik found himself somewhat relieved that this wasn’t actually… all that bad. Despite having started off entirely on the wrong foot, he was actually enjoying talking to Charles. And looking at him. That was definitely helping Erik get over the whole “incredibly annoying neighbor” initial impression rather quickly.

He noticed a grain of rice that had somehow gotten stuck to the corner of Charles’ mouth, and if that wasn’t unfair, he didn’t know what was. As Erik tried to keep his mind from wandering too far into dangerous territory about lips, Charles must have sensed the piece of food and his tongue swept out to get it. _That_ was just uncalled for, and he returned his full attention to what remained of his dinner, lest his thoughts wander _there_ while he was sitting right next to a literal telepath.

“You know,” Charles piped up, breaking Erik’s intense concentration on his food. “I’m actually surprised you invited me in. I wasn’t sure you were going to, honestly.”

“I’m surprised, too, but my judgement was clouded. You bribed me with Chinese food.” Erik joked back.

“I’ll make note of that for the future.”

_Future_. Erik pondered the implications of that for a moment. More of… whatever _this_ was would be more than fine by him.

“You plan on regularly appearing at my door with free food?” Erik hoped he sounded more nonchalant than desperately hopeful.

Charles seemed to ponder the question for a moment before answering. “Raven warned that my chances were slim, but you _did_ let me in, which is probably a good sign, right? Or at least I hope so.”

Erik hummed. “That is yet to be seen, but giving me the last egg roll might help your chances.”

Without hesitation, Charles passed the box which contained the last remaining egg roll over to Erik, his smile a bit more reserved than earlier.

“You may manage to get in my good graces yet.” Erik teased him, accepting the offered food. He couldn’t help but notice the slight blush tinting the other man’s face again, and really, the whole blushing thing is pretty cute. He made a mental note to find more ways to get Charles to turn red in the future.

There was that word again, _future_. Erik tried to not think too hard about it as the neighbor he had considered murdering just a few days ago was amicably sitting on his couch with him. They don’t really know each other all too well yet, but Erik is more than willing to change that.

“Oh, have you seen this video? It’s hilarious.” Charles somehow scooted even closer as Erik saw him open YouTube on his phone and search for ‘thank you Jeff.’ What followed was some sort of parody of that song that plagued his life for the past week. Sure, it’s humorous, but probably not something Erik would ever actively watch without Charles practically shoving it into his face. Even though he didn’t really _get it_ , Charles’ smile as the video played was so bright it lit up his whole face, and suddenly Erik found that he didn’t really care about minor annoyances as much as he did before.

As Erik sat there, thinking about how there was going to be a _next time_ , he decided… he could get used to this, terrible music and sense of humor included.

**Author's Note:**

> At one point the working title for this became “Ariana pls stop doing stupid shit before I post this fic.” She did not stop. I don’t think I have ever had secondhand embarrassment this badly for anyone and I don’t even stan.
> 
> Anyway! Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
